All posts by csb10.top

Fawad Ahmed is expected to be eligible for the full Ashes series after the Australian Senate passed a bill that would allow his citizenship to be fast-tracked. The legislation has now passed through both houses of parliament and after it is rubber-stamped by the governor-general Ahmed will be eligible to obtain an Australian passport, which should make him available for the first Ashes Test.However, although it is likely that Ahmed will be called into the squad it is by no means certain. On Wednesday, he and the 19-year-old left-arm spinner Ashton Agar were named in the Australia A squad to tour Zimbabwe and South Africa in July and August, while the Ashes is being played, and both men will be in contention if another spinner is added to the Ashes touring party.”We’ve got a couple of spinners we’re mulling over at the moment,” the coach Mickey Arthur told the ABC. “We’ve got Nathan Lyon in the squad. If the weather stays like this we might consider another spinner. There’s been no clear-cut decision on that as yet.”Arthur discuss the possible inclusion of another spinner with fellow selectors John Inverarity and Rod Marsh this weekend in Bristol, where Australia A will play against Gloucestershire in the final match of their tour of the British Isles. While it is unclear at this stage whether Ahmed will travel to Africa or remain with the Ashes squad, a Cricket Australia spokesman said the progress of the bill through parliament was encouraging.”This is pleasing news for CA and a big step forward in a process that will help enable Fawad Ahmed become an Australian citizen,” the spokesman said. “Pending royal assent by the governor-general, the Bill will become law and Ahmed will be considered for Australian citizenship, subject to the normal tests and assessments that any citizenship applicant would go through.”

New Zealand’s six major domestic associations have announced their list of first-round contracts for the 2013-14 season. Former New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori, who turned down the national contract due to uncertainty over his recovery from surgery on his Achilles tendon, wasn’t included in the list for Northern Knights.Each association can offer 9-13 contracts at their discretion in the first round and can expand it to 14 players in the second round of contracts that will be offered on August 9 this year.The contracts offered today will commence on October 1, 2013.Auckland Aces: Dean Bartlett, Michael Bates, Craig Cachopa, Lockie Ferguson, Tipene Friday, Colin de Grandhomme, Donovan Grobbelaar, Gareth Hopkins, Anaru Kitchen, Tim McIntosh, Matt Quinn, Jeet Raval, Bhupinder SinghCanterbury Wizards: Todd Astle, Hamish Bennett, Brad Cachopa, Andrew Ellis, Matthey Henry, Roneel Hira, Ryan McCone, Matthew McEwan, Henry Nicholls, Rob Nicol, Shanan Stewart, Logan van Beek, George WorkerCentral Stags: Carl Cachopa, Greg Hay, Jamie How, Adam Milne, Andrew Mathieson, Tarun Nethula, Kieran Noema-Barnett, Dean Robinson, Bevan Small, Ben Smith, Kruger van Wyk, Ben Wheeler, William YoungNorthern Knights: Graeme Aldridge, Jono Boult, Anton Devcich, Cameron Fletcher, Daniel Flynn, Jono Hickey, Scott Kuggeleijn, Daryl Mitchell, Ish Sodhi, Anurag Verma, Brad WilsonOtago Volts: Nick Beard, Michael Bracewell, Neil Broom, Ian Butler, Mark Craig, Derek De Boorder, Jacob Duffy, James McMillan, James Neesham, Aaron Redmond, Iain Robertson, Jesse Ryder, Sam WellsWellington Firebirds: Brent Arnel, Josh Brodie, James Franklin, Mark Gillespie, Andy McKay, Stephen Murdoch, Michael Papps, Jeetan Patel, Michael Pollard, Luke Ronchi, Ili Tugaga, Henry Walsh, Luke Woodcock

Australia suffered a potentially significant blow to their chances of victory at Chester-le-Street when Shane Watson left the field injured on Sunday. Watson pulled up sore after the third ball of his seventh over of England’s second innings and walked off with pain in his right hip/groin area. Cricket Australia said he would be assessed on Sunday evening “to see how it settles”.In the immediate term, the injury hampers Australia’s hopes in this Test as, due to ICC regulations, Watson will not be able to have a runner when he bats in Australia’s chase. Watson scored 68 in the first innings and apart from the centurion Chris Rogers was the batsman who appeared to best handle the swinging and seaming conditions.In the longer term, it is a concern given Australia’s apparent desire to turn Watson into more of a bowling allrounder. He began the series opening the batting but a lack of runs at the top of the order, combined with his impressive economy and control at the bowling crease, encouraged the Australians to move him down to No. 6 for this game.Ryan Harris said: “It’s obviously not a good sign when anyone gets injured but I don’t know it’s as bad as first thought. When I left the rooms they were talking about him batting but they’ll assess it tonight and see how he pulls up in the morning. You never want anyone limping off, especially someone like Shane Watson who’s a pretty big player in your team.”Watson has bowled 80.3 overs in this Ashes campaign, easily the second most he has sent down in a Test series, after the 115.4 he delivered in India in 2008. Watson’s bowling has been a constant source of injury concerns throughout his career, to the point that he embarked on the tour of India earlier this year as a batsman only, in an attempt to avoid further problems. But his miserable batting form – he has not scored a Test hundred since 2010 – meant that Watson needed to be bowling for Australia to gain enough value from his inclusion in the side and he has played an important bowling role in England.Watson’s most recent bowling injury occurred during the Boxing Day Test against Sri Lanka at the MCG last year, when he hurt his left calf, the same muscle that caused him problems earlier in the season and ruled him out of the first two Tests against South Africa. He had also missed the whole of the previous Australian Test summer due to calf and hamstring injuries.His injury in Melbourne came after he sent down 47.4 overs in the previous match at Hobart, the most he had ever delivered in a Test, and his heavy workload and subsequent injury on this Ashes tour will again force Australia to consider how to use him in future.If Watson is ruled out of the next Test at The Oval, Australia will also need to consider whether to replace him with a bowler and move Brad Haddin up to No. 6, or with a batsman. James Faulkner, Ashton Agar and Mitchell Starc are the extra bowlers in Australia’s squad who could come into contention and each offers an all-round option as well.

ScorecardRavi Bopara made a run-a-ball 88•PA Photos

Ravi Bopara warmed-up for the forthcoming one-day international series between England and Australia by scoring 88 as Essex beat Derbyshire by 107 runs at Colchester. Bopara’s fine effort, from 87 balls, keeps Essex on course for a place in the semi-finals of the competition after they had totalled 259 for 7.It was a target that always looked beyond the visitors, who fielded a weakened side, and lost their first four wickets before the fifty was raised before eventually subsiding to 152 all out in the 32nd over.Essex left-arm seamer Tymal Mills took the wickets of openers Wes Durston and Chesney Hughes for single figure scores, with his pace proving too much for either batsman to handle. Reece Topley and Tim Phillips then made steady inroads into the innings, but former Essex batsman Billy Godleman did spare Derbyshire from complete humiliation with a fighting 60 from 74 deliveries before becoming one of Topley’s victims.Godleman shared in a half-century stand with Alex Hughes, who made 28, before being bowled by Ryan ten Doeschate, but once that stand had been broken, the visitors folded quickly. The last four wickets went down in as many overs as the innings came to an abrupt end.Thanks mainly to the accuracy of Tony Palladino, Essex were restricted to 66 for 2 after 16 overs, having been put into bat by Derbyshire. Former Essex fast bowler Palladino removed openers Gautam Gambhir and Mark Pettini for 21 and 23 respectively. But Bopara and Greg Smith were to provide welcome momentum with a stand of 80 in 13 overs before the latter fell to Ally Evans for 30.By this time, Bopara was moving through the gears and had struck six fours and three sixes when, within sight of his season’s second century in the competition, he was trapped leg before by Alex Hughes.It was late flourish by James Foster and Graham Napier that saw Essex to their imposing total. The pair put on 52 for only 23 balls, of which Napier collected 23 from just 10 deliveries before he was caught in the deep. Foster departed in the same manner to the final ball of the innings, his 41 containing five fours and a six and arriving from 24 balls.

Lalit Modi, the former IPL chairman, has been expelled from the BCCI during a special general meeting (SGM) of the board in Chennai. The unanimous decision was made quickly after the meeting began at 2.00 pm and it came following a series of legal proceedings in court over the last couple of weeks, as Modi tried to stay the SGM. The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave the final go-ahead for the BCCI meeting and the board’s action was swift and severe.Anirudh Chaudhary, the Haryana Cricket Association secretary, proposed the expulsion and the motion was seconded by Ranjib Biswal, the Orissa Cricket Association president. The sanction could prevent Modi from holding a position in the board again. The BCCI said it had discussed during the SGM, the findings of the disciplinary committee against Modi, as well as a letter Modi had written to the board secretary on September 24, requesting a postponement of the meeting.At the SGM the board “resolved that Mr. Lalit Modi is guilty of committing acts of serious misconduct and indiscipline, and therefore, in exercise of powers as per Regulation 32 of the Memorandum and Rules and Regulations of the Board, Mr. Lalit Modi be and is hereby expelled from the BCCI. He shall forfeit all his rights and privileges as Administrator. He shall not in future be entitled to hold any position or office, or be admitted in any Committee or any member or associate member of the Board.”Modi, speaking to said he would continue to fight the BCCI. “I expected the ban, it’s sad for Indian cricket because it shows the BCCI is least concerned for the integrity of cricket,” he said. “It’s a cosy club. I’m going to be here, fighting them. I think Indian cricket needs cleansing and as far as I am concerned I am going to go after them. Till now they were colleagues. Time has now come to take everything out of the box and put it in public domain.”I was already gone. I was suspended for three years. I kept fighting. I will continue to fight. I am moving on, I am looking at other sports. Wait and watch … it’s a global league. I have not been sitting here idle.”The BCCI’s disciplinary committee had found Modi guilty on eight different charges of “various acts of indiscipline and misconduct”. The charges, relating to irregularities in various financial and administrative matters of the IPL including the sale of franchise and media rights, were pressed by the BCCI in 2010 soon after Modi’s swift and dramatic exit from the league he founded.

ScorecardFile photo: Marizanne Kapp made a half-century and picked up a wicket•ICC/Solaris Images

South Africa Women took an unassailable 2-0 lead courtesy of three top-order half-centuries, as they beat Sri Lanka Women by 67 runs in the second ODI in Potchefstroom.Sri Lanka elected to field, but early breakthroughs were a difficult commodity as 21-year old Lizelle Lee and Trisha Chetty strung together an opening partnership of 72 runs. Chetty was the more dominant partner and departed first, caught in front by Shashikala Siriwardene. Lee held firm, reaching her third ODI half-century and when she fell in the 29th over, South Africa had already built a strong foundation at 141 for 2. Captain Mignon du Preez, with an unbeaten 79 and allrounder Marizanne Kapp, with 72, constructed an excellent charge, with the final 10 overs yielding 82 runs.Sri Lanka’s chase was hampered early when seamer Shabnim Ismail had the openers bowled inside the first five overs. Siriwardene offered resistance, with good support from No. 6 Chamani Seneviratna. Their 95-run partnership ensured Sri Lanka remained in the hunt, but when Ismail returned and had Siriwardene out for 68 in the 37th over, the chase began to slip away. An equation that read 120 runs off 78, proved enough cushion for offspinner Sunette Loubser to run through the lower order and limit the visitors well below their target.”The top order did really well to get us to a good position so I’m happy with the first innings,” said du Preez. “There were a few extra runs that we didn’t need to give away but I’m happy with the way the bowlers recovered. It was definitely a team effort today.”Du Preez wanted to take the momentum from this win into the third and final ODI on Monday and whitewash Sri Lanka. “It would be really good to finish with a three-nil series victory, we look forward to going out there and giving it our all.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
The curtain came down on Sachin Tendulkar’s storied Test career with one of India’s most comprehensive victories, as a hapless West Indies crumbled on the third morning in Mumbai. Tendulkar walked off the field with a tear in his eye and to a fluid guard of honour from his team-mates, soaking in the cheers of the Wankhede crowd one last time.Pragyan Ojha took his second five-for of the match, and Ashwin finished with seven in the match, but the only spin bowling Indian fans wanted to see was the all-sorts of Tendulkar. Ten minutes before the scheduled close of the first session, by when West Indies had lost eight wickets in another inept batting performance, Tendulkar was brought into the attack. Though the crowd was desperate for a wicket, Tendulkar’s final two overs produced no breakthrough. MS Dhoni brought back his main bowlers and within a handful of overs, the Test was brought to an end with Mohammed Shami flattening the middle stump of the West Indies No. 11 Shannon Gabriel.Sachin Tendulkar was given a lap of honour on the shoulders of his team-mates•BCCI

West Indies’ batsmen hadn’t shown much aptitude for a fight earlier in the day either, as the spinners enjoyed the bounce and turn on offer. In the sixth over of the morning, Marlon Samuels charged out to Ojha, was nowhere near the pitch of the ball, and was yards out of the crease when Dhoni took the bails off. Soon after, another player who has had a rough series, Chris Gayle, was caught-behind for 35 off Ojha and West Indies were five down. With those two big wickets, the question was whether West Indies would last the session.The man brought in to strengthen the batting in this Test, Narsingh Deonarine, fell for a duck, bringing in another player whose critics will only get louder after this game. Darren Sammy had played an atrocious shot in the first innings to bag a duck and he nearly fell first ball this time, a leading edge just landing short of mid-off. The relief for Sammy didn’t last long, though, as after an over in which he was tormented by Ojha, he missed an arm ball to be trapped lbw.Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the only West Indies batsman to have shown the wherewithal to grit it out consistently this series, resisted with 41, and Denesh Ramdin went on to a half-century but given the mammoth lead India had, it was only a matter of time. Chanderpaul was the man to depart, with Ashwin getting him lbw and running off in celebration.West Indies may have come into the series on the back of six victories, but the pitiful challenge they put up shows that they have regressed in the last two years. In those two years, the Indian team has undergone a major overhaul, and while the verdict on their performance will have to wait till they are tested overseas, they have done enough to send off Tendulkar with a record six Test wins.

Brendon McCullum believes he has players who are now confident enough to compare themselves with the best in the world and is eager for what should be another raise in standards from the visit of India.Top of the pile in the captain’s estimation was Ross Taylor, who scored 495 runs in the series against West Indies, followed by his new-ball pairing of Tim Southee and Trent Boult. McCullum has seen a shift in his players’ attitudes during the year as they have begun to find some competitiveness in their Test cricket.”It’s early days, but we have some guys who are hungry to perform on the world stage and match themselves up against the best players rather than just being the best in New Zealand,” McCullum said. “If Ross was to retire now he’d go down as one of our all-time greats – and I said we should enjoy the ability to watch a guy like that who will go down as one of our greats. The other guys, give them time, but they have the makings.”New Zealand now find themselves in the position where some tough decisions will need to made over selection – but for reasons of pressure from domestic cricket, rather than under-performance in the current XI although one or two of the side will be looking over their shoulder.The return of Jesse Ryder to the one-day side has posed the tricky question of how, if he proves ready, does he fit back into the Test team. The only feasible option appears to be that McCullum reverts to opening the batting in place of the struggling Peter Fulton and Ryder slots into the middle order. However, there are other batsmen pressing their case in the Plunket Shield, led by Aaron Redmond who played the first Test against West Indies and Tom Latham, the left hander, who made 241 not out this week.”Any time there is pressure coming from below it’s a healthy state for the game,” McCullum said. “Those guys are performing nicely and banking some significant runs. I still believe the guys in this team are performing well. You have to look at the pieces of the jigsaw and how they fit into that as well.”Another senior figure who will come back into contention is Daniel Vettori. He is currently playing the Big Bash League for Brisbane Heat but the New Zealand management are keeping in close contact with him. McCullum, though, continued to heap praise on Ish Sodhi, the legspinner, despite his limited role in the Wellington and Hamilton Tests. It will be a good test of the selectors’ nerve whether they stick with Sodhi against the high-powered India batting order.”I’m rapt with Ish,” McCullum said.” I know he hasn’t bowled a great deal but it’s great for his development, to be part of a side that is playing good cricket, and when he has been called on, he’s done an excellent job. The luxury of having the pace attack we’ve got allows us to have the type of bowler Ish is. I’ve got a tremendous amount of confidence in not only his ability but also his cricket awareness and his character as a person.”We’ll have to speak to Dan and see where he’s at. I know he’s managed to get a lot of cricket recently, which is great. I caught up with him the other day and he looks young, fresh, fit and healthy which is great because he’s been fighting some tough physical battles over the last few years but he looked pretty sprightly. With a bit more cricket under his belt that confidence in his body will continue to come back and it’s a question we’ll have to ponder down the track.”

Angus Fraser has emerged as a contender to become an England selector following the retirement of Geoff Miller.Fraser, the former England seamer, would continue in his role as director of cricket at Middlesex if appointed. “I will be applying for the part-time selector position and would combine it with my current job,” Fraser told ESPNcricinfo.Fraser’s desire to combine both roles might count against him. While Ashley Giles held the role of selector and director of cricket at Warwickshire at the same time, it was a controversial situation and was the cause of regular complaints over a potential conflict of interest.Miller, who retired as England’s chief selector with James Whitaker stepping up to take the senior role, has stated that, in an ideal world, selectors should have neither a direct and current association with a county or a role within the media.Other candidates for the position are believed to include former Somerset and England batsman Brian Rose, who has held off-field roles at Somerset and is currently with Glamorgan, and former England and Middlesex off-spinner John Emburey. Chris Adams, the former Surrey director of cricket, has also confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that he has applied for the role.Consideration has also been given to inviting Marcus Trescothick to apply for the role. Trescothick has been reappointed as Somerset’s captain in 2014 and has no immediate plans for retirement.Geoff Cook is another appealing possibility. Cook, Durham’s director of cricket, suffered a heart attack midway through last season and, although he was restored to his old self by the time Durham won their third Championship in five years, he was stripped of his first-team responsibilities in November and given a broader role supervising the county’s development of young players. Cook, despite his health scare, has not lost his appetite to be involved at the highest level and it remains to be seen whether that role can be designed to his satisfaction.Certainly, Cook’s ability to create a winning, yet relaxed, environment has been proven over the past decade and, if the ECB decided to pursue their interest and offer him a selector’s role, he would be highly respected by the counties.

Steve Harmison, the former England seamer who retired at the end of last season, has added to the criticism directed at the ECB this week, both for its handling of the Kevin Pietersen situation and the impersonal manner in which he was rejected for the vacant selector’s position.Harmison, who 222 wickets in 62 Tests for England, revealed in his column for north-east regional newspaper the that he had experienced the ECB’s “arrogance” first hand, after applying to join the selection panel in place of Geoff Miller. England require at least one new selector, after Miller stepped down at the end of last year.”Last month I answered an advert on the ECB’s website to apply for a job as an England selector,” Harmison wrote. “I didn’t get it. That’s fair enough, I didn’t really expect to. But it would have been nice to have been told by something other than a bog-standard automated email.”I’d like to think after playing more than 100 times for England in all forms of the game I’d at least get a personal reply, explaining why they came to their decision. But then, after everything that’s happened with Kevin Pietersen this week, they obviously don’t do explanations.”Harmison, a former team-mate of Pietersen’s, has been one of the discarded batsman’s most vocal supporters during a week in which debate about the end of his international career has raged on TV, radio and in newsprint – with Andrew Strauss the latest to voice an opinion.”I know Kev, and everything he has said about wanting to stay on until 2015, to play in the next one-day international World Cup, to get 10,000 Test runs and complete the set of home-and-away Test hundreds in South Africa, tells me he’s still hungry to play for England,” Harmison said.”KP is not unmanageable. No- one is. He will respond to a strong leader, as he did with Michael Vaughan.”Harmison also pushed for Vaughan, the 2005 Ashes-winning captain, to be considered as a candidate to succeed Andy Flower, who quit as team director last month, in the aftermath of England’s 5-0 whitewashing in Australia. Like Harmison, Vaughan has been prominent in giving his backing to Pietersen, even calling for him to be made Alastair Cook’s vice-captain.